Homeland Security Department

Connie Patrick, Director, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center

By Jordain Carney

Patrick, who has been the training center's fifth director for more than a decade, says she finds the job just as challenging as she did on Day One. She said the organization faces the challenge of "how do we continue to do more with less for more people." A consolidated training model has helped the agency broaden its impact. FLETC, located in Glynco, Ga., trained some 70,000 officers in 91 organizations in 2012; about a million people have gone through the program in the past 40 years. Patrick, 58, was born in Sumter, S.C., and with a father in the Air Force she moved around a lot, eventually graduating from high school in Titusville, Fla. She received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Central Florida, after initially considering studying math. Patrick spent 20 years in law enforcement in Florida, retiring as the director of the Division of Human Resources and Training for state law enforcement. She called FLETC a "second career, basically." Patrick, who became director in 2002, has been at the center during a time when politics have become increasingly polarized, but she said "law enforcement always should be apolitical." Patrick added that she has "enjoyed working for all the secretaries" and has seen "the department continue to mature and get better" since she arrived.